Having fallen off the bottom of the map on the first leg I was less than 30 miles from the finish when it was closed. I also missed the start of leg 2 and was down in the high 400s when I started. This leg a different tactic and was doing 21+ knots for a while.

Pretty much can't beat the routers in these races, so I'm glad we've got a PPRuNe fleet full of seat-o'-the-pantsers to sail with. Otherwise it's hard to stay motivated when you see the huge clump of boats around the leaders, all converged on the same routing solution. Much more interesting to turn off all the non-Pprune boats and try to figure out the solutions on my own.

I don't see the point, for pleasure, in following a routing program. Guessing the weather and making decisions from experience is a lot more fun. Unfortunately pressure of work has left me missing long periods here and there, but it's comeback time now!

Somebody needs to tell Flugholm and Bushfiva about presetting a start course !

While I know that at this stage position is nothing, can someone who understands confirm that the reference for DTG and therefore position is Great Circle and not Rhumb Line. If correct I have only just twigged this !

For some reason which escapes me now I was mucking around with the GC mode and didn't clear the GC route, then 'Gibneyjr' took a dive south to be around the GC track and became #1 even though, visually, he was miles behind. Then I got it !

Yes, it's because of the 'great circle' route. I've read quite a few books on the 'Whitbread' as it used to be known and the secret for this leg would be to go as far South as possible which would be the shortest but being careful not to get in amongst too much ice or the wrong side of the areas of low pressure.

Well the GC nearly has you in Antarctica but to me the 7 day forecast has a lot of blue bits down there. I think the waypoint in the last leg did us a favour as it forced the fleet North and to avoid the slack winds further South again against the widely held view that South was the way to go. As ever we will see.